Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
15
going further
In this chapter, we look at some possible additions
to the final projects, potential ways to develop them,
and where to find the information on how to do so.
Both Blender and GIMP have many uses beyond
those discussed in this topic. But as a full 3D anima-
tion suite, Blender has a number of features that we
haven't had time to examine, so I'll concentrate on
how we can use Blender to take our projects further.
For example, one Blender feature we can use to
expand the projects is the Armature object, which
gives models a kind of skeleton that allows them
to be moved or posed. The process of creating an
armature for a model and setting up the connec-
tions that make the armature control the mesh
is known as rigging , and the resulting armature is
known as a rig . Rigging can be complex. Covering
it in full is well beyond the scope of this topic, but
I will briefly review the principles of rigging the
Spider Bot. Once you have rigged your creations,
you can animate them using Blender's animation
tools. Like rigging, animation is a topic that would
take a topic of its own to cover, so I'll just suggest
some ideas, as well as resources for further reading.
But first, let's look at some simple ways to add
extra details to the projects.
Embellishments
It's often difficult to find the point where you're
finally ready to call a project finished. Sometimes a
project is just missing something—certain details or
additional objects that would allow you to get extra
mileage out of your creation. To that end, here are
some ideas for extras we could add to the projects.
Adding to the Jungle Temple
The Jungle Temple scene already has a lot going
on, but the color scheme is pretty simple. One way
to dress it up would be to create a few flowering
plants to add a splash of color here and there. I
used face duplication (a way to duplicate one object
over the faces of another) to add some flowers to
the IvyGen mesh, and I increased the number of
leaves to make the plant life more interesting. I
created a new “branch” object consisting of a few
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